The Rise and Fall of Face Recognition Awareness Across the Life Span

A core component of metacognition is cognitive awareness, insight into how one's cognitive abilities compare with others. Previous studies of cognitive awareness have focused on basic aspects of perception, memory, and learning. Further, studies of the awareness of one's social-cognitive abilities have been limited to examining awareness of others' thinking (i.e., theory of mind). The current study characterizes awareness of one's own social-cognitive abilities, specifically face recognition awareness, and examines its change across the life span. We used a large, web-based sample (N = 4,143) with a broad age range (ages 10-70), administering well-validated measures of objective (Cambridge Face Memory Test 3) and self-reported (Cambridge Face Memory Questionnaire) face recognition. We found a robust overall association between objective and self-reported face recognition (r = .42 in females, r = .36 in males). While we found that face recognition ability peaked in the early- to mid-30s, face recognition awareness peaked in the early- to mid-20s, was relatively stable throughout the 20s-40s, and declined in the 50s-60s. Relative subjective versus objective face recognition bias measures demonstrated that 10- to 18- and 51- to 70-year-olds overestimated their self-reported face recognition abilities in comparison with 19- to 50-year-olds. Finally, compared with males, females had greater face recognition awareness and a bias to relatively underestimate their face recognition abilities. Public Significance Statement This study suggests that people generally have insight into their face recognition ability, particularly from the mid-20s to 40s. We found that both those under 20 and over 50 tend to overestimate their face recognition ability and that compared with females, males displayed a tendency to overestimate their face recognition ability. We also found that face recognition ability peaks about 10 years later than awareness of this ability, which is temporally aligned with the lifetime peak of other more general metacognitive processes. This suggests that, at least in the case of face recognition, ability and metacognitive awareness of that ability do not share a developmental trajectory.